The dog roamed the backroads of Lauderdale County in Northwest Alabama for a long time, catching the ire of plenty of residents. Some people yelled at him. Some threw things at him. Others shot at him.

And Augustus didn't just suffer from the abuse inflicted by people. He was remarkably skinny because he was so starved. He had a severe case of mange. There were ear mites. Bug bites. His diseases were so severe that he was unrecognizable. The mange caused his hair to clump so badly that you couldn't tell if Augustus was a dog, coyote or wolf. (His appearance was so pitiful that it really can't be put to words -- watch the video above to see what he looked like on the streets.)

Augustus should be dead right now. There's no question about that. But the fact that he's not shows that dogs have an incredible will to survive -- and that kindness by humans can change lives.

Augustus, then

Debbie Rappuhn knew she had to find a way to capture Augustus.

As president and co-founder of HASRA (Heart of Alabama. Save. Rescue. Adopt), a nonprofit, no-kill rescue based out of Killen, she takes on the hard cases that no one else is willing to take on -- the dogs that would be put to sleep if they were taken to a kill shelter.

But capturing Augustus wasn't as easy as opening a car door and telling him to jump in. He was skittish and distrustful of people. Why should he trust her when humans had been hurting him his whole life?

So she and her colleagues set a trap full of food to capture Augustus and bring him in. When they caught him, she said his mange was so severe that he looked like a "prehistoric creature."

He was so sick that she had no clue what to do, so she immediately took him to a vet. The vet was taken aback when he saw Augustus -- he said it was the most severe case of mange he'd ever seen.

But Augustus didn't get to come back to HASRA with Debbie. He had to stay at the vet for a while. The crusty layer of mange on his coat was about two inches thick, and the vet had to remove it in stages. According to Debbie, they'd peel off tiny, potato chip-thin layers each day. (Debbie documented this on a Facebook page she set up for Augustus, who was already amassing lots of followers.) By the time the process was complete and the crusty layer was removed, she said that Augustus looked like a burn victim.

When Augustus got to come back to the HASRA sanctuary, the healing process had just begun. He couldn't play on the playgrounds or go outside because the heat was miserable on his skin. The HASRA volunteers had to work with him to get him eating on a regular schedule. And they also had to give him a special bath every other day, then rub him down with Vaseline and coconut oil afterward (and put a T-shirt on him to keep it all in place).

This was the time that Augustus started to trust the HASRA volunteers.

"He'd look up at us with these eyes that just said, 'Thank you,'" Debbie said. "We knew at that time he wasn't scared of us anymore. He was just so thankful and so grateful that someone had (helped him)."

Augustus in the middle of his treatment. (Courtesy)Haley Laurence | hlaurence@al.com

The process of recovery

Augustus' recovery was a long process. Each time a bit of fur started to grow was a milestone. A patch of hair started to grow on Augustus' knees and the HASRA volunteers celebrated.'

They'd start taking him out more, too, but Augustus was still hesitant. "We'd take him on walks and he was still skittish with people he didn't know because people had been mean to him," Debbie explains.

And finally, the black and white fur started to come in and it became obvious: He was a border collie. With his gorgeous coat grown in, he looked nothing like the pooch that wandered the county roads.

And after a long period, the time had come: He was ready to be adopted. Plenty of his Facebook fans who'd watched his recovery filled out forms to adopt him, but Debbie says she was looking for "the right family."

She kept getting calls from Jordan Crist, a Montgomery resident. Jordan wanted to make sure her vet application came through, but when they started talking about Augustus, she'd burst into tears. She had one other dog and thought Augustus would make a terrific addition to her family. Debbie says she knew after talking to Jordan that she was "the one."

So he moved to Montgomery to begin his new life.

Augustus, now

Augustus has been in his new home for about eight months now, and he's enjoying being part of a family.

At first, Jordan said, he had lots of anxiety -- understandably -- and didn't want to leave her side. But now, she said, "he has started being a dog. And I know that sounds strange, but he has started to be a little bit more independent."

He loves squirrels. Or maybe he hates squirrels. He barks at them all the time, whatever that means. He also adores his fur sister, Layla, who has helped him get acclimated to his new life.

And as time goes by, he accomplishes more and more.

"Over the past couple of weeks, we've seen him randomly pick up a toy or two and swing it around," Jordan says. "Those little milestones you take for granted with dogs that haven't necessarily been through what he's been through. Just those little things."

But most importantly, Augustus is content. "He is just happy," Jordan says.

Just Friday, they got a call about a blind and deaf shih tzu that had been thrown on the side of the road. Debbie and her crew took in the dog, because that's what they do.

"People ask us how we can do it, but (the dogs with the hard cases are) the ones that hurt me," she said. "They're the ones who have had the crappiest lives and haven't known what being loved is like. Those are the ones I want to take in."

Although each new dog she takes in makes her question the goodness of human nature, she and the other volunteers keep on keeping on.

"We just try to do what we can to make this area a little better," she said.